1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for operating a user terminal More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling a touch screen using a timeline bar (consisting of a timeline and a bar) and a recording medium with a program for the same recorded therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
A touch screen or a touch panel refers to a user interface device that can detect a user's touch and, using stored software, perform a process corresponding to the touch. For example, when a user touches a character or an image displayed on a touch screen with an input means, such as a finger tip, a stylus, or a similar object, a function corresponding to the character or image is executed. A benefit of using a touch screen or a touch panel is that user input can be received without using a keyboard. Typically, the user's finger tip is used as the input means, causing low touch accuracy due to the large surface area of the user's finger tip. To address this problem, a hardware solution such as the stylus pen has been proposed. However, the separate stylus pen may be lost inadvertently, and inconveniently requires two hands for its utilization.
A timeline bar is popularly used as a content manipulation means for manipulations such as Play, Rewind, and Fast Forward of video. Generally, the timeline bar includes a timeline corresponding to the full content length or the full range of manipulation parameters (e.g., sound, brightness, etc.), and a bar representing the current level.
FIG. 1 illustrates a timeline bar displayed on a touch screen for controlling content according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 1, a timeline 110 is displayed in the form of a straight line corresponding to the full length of content such as video and audio, and the timeline 110 includes a bar 120 indicating a position of the content that is actually displayed on a touch screen 100. In operation, a user generally shifts the bar 120, which is an indicator on the timeline 110, with his or her finger tip. However, it may be difficult for the user to manipulate the content to the desired extent due to the fixed scale of the timeline and the large size of the user's finger tip. More particularly, due to the decreasing size of the touch screen and the increasing capacity of the content, the user may suffer significant inconvenience by the fixed-scale timeline 110. Therefore, there is a need for a new interface technique capable of accurately manipulating and controlling multimedia content with less cognitive effort.